Friday, September 29, 2006

Renowned poet/storyteller Robert Bly will be featured in two presentations, October 3 and 4 at Brookens Library.

"Poems and Ideas: An Evening with Robert Bly" is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, October 3. At 11 a.m. on Wednesday, October 4, he will speak on "What Responsibility Do We Have for the Iraq War." Both events will be in Brookens Auditorium. Read more>>

The second program in this fall's "Taste of UIS Lunchtime Lecture Series" will feature a panel presentation by three professional lobbyists.

"Politicians, Lobbyists, and Scallywags" will look at what lobbyists do, how lobbying interfaces with the election process, and whether lobbyists have an unfair advantage over the needs of ordinary citizens in affecting public policy. The program is set for Wednesday, October 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Maldaner's Upstairs, 222 South Sixth St., Springfield. Read more>>

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Ronald Michaelson, visiting assistant professor of Political Studies at UIS, has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Campaign Finance Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit institute affiliated with The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Michaelson, who also has a joint appointment with the Center for State Policy and Leadership at UIS, previously served as executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections for 27 years. Read more>>

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Charles Wheeler, director of UIS' Public Affairs Reporting program, has been inducted into the Lincoln League of Journalists of the Illinois Associated Press Editors Association. The honor was announced September 21 at the IAPEA annual awards banquet. Wheeler becomes only the seventh member of the League, which recognizes "men and women who have provided exemplary service to other journalists and to daily newspapers published in Illinois." Read more>>

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Charles Wheeler, associate professor and director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at UIS, recently received top honors for magazine commentary/news analysis in the annual competition sponsored by Capitolbeat, a national organization of journalists covering state and local governments. This is the third year in a row that Wheeler has won a first-place award in the contest. The award recognized Wheeler’s contributions over the past year as a columnist for Illinois Issues magazine.

Four PAR graduates also received awards from Capitolbeat this year. Read more>>

Monday, September 18, 2006

UIS is sponsoring a weeklong series of events in observance of national Constitution Day, honoring the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. Remaining events include brown bag discussions on "Understanding the Differences between Platform and Issue Voting" and "The Making of a Citizen," as well as a screening of the documentary "Waging a Living."

Constitution Day observances also mark the beginning of UIS' participation in a nationwide non-partisan voter registration project taking place on over 70 college campuses. Read more>>

Friday, September 15, 2006

UIS will host a panel discussion of the life and work of sculptor Preston Jackson beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, October 5, in Brookens Auditorium. A reception hosted by the UIS Alumni Association will immediately follow the discussion at 8:30 p.m. in the PAC restaurant, and the Visual Arts Gallery will also be open after the discussion to allow participants to view some of Jackson’s works firsthand.

Mike Miller, assistant professor of Visual Arts who was instrumental in bringing the exhibit to life, noted, "We have an excellent group of art historians, gallerists, curators, arts administrators, and artists assembled in the panel. The fact that experts of this caliber have agreed to take part in the discussion is itself a testament to the quality of Jackson's work." Read more>>

UIS will host Political Art and the Public Sphere, a new series of monthly events that will feature "political art" -- such as a film, piece of music, or visual artwork -- and a discussion about the issues it raises.

The series will begin Thursday, September 28, with "The Weather Underground," a documentary about the 1960s radical group that rioted and bombed in hopes that their actions would spark a revolution. The film will be shown at 6 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium. Read more>>

Thursday, September 14, 2006

The Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning at UIS will host a national workshop on "Online Learning in an Emergency: Delivering the Curriculum When the Campus is Closed," September 20 to 22 in New Orleans.

The conference is funded by a $45,000 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. OTEL Director Ray Schroeder will serve as chair.

Schroeder had originally submitted a proposal for this conference early in the summer of 2005, but when Hurricane Katrina struck, Schroeder and Burks Oakley, U of I Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs, conceived and spearheaded a major national initiative in which the Sloan Foundation contributed more than $1 million to provide free online college courses for displaced students. Read more>>

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Illinois Student Assistance Commission Chairman Don McNeil and ISAC Commissioner Andrew Davis will conduct a media briefing about the new MAP Plus grant program for middle-income college students. Other issues concerning financial aid will also be discussed. The session will begin at 11 a.m., Thursday, September 14, in PAC conference room D. Read more>>

Public radio WUIS will host the station's first-ever Passports Tour, a weeklong trip to Italy, May 16 - 23, 2007. Music Director Karl Scroggin will lead the group to stops in Florence, Tuscany, and Rome. An informational session will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 21, at the WUIS studios. Read more>>

On September 7 UIS' Women's Center hosted an Anti-Violence Initiative focus group of the Chicago Foundation for Women. UIS was the only downstate site chosen to host such a session.

Center Director Lynn Otterson said that invitees included several UIS students, faculty, and staff as well as community residents involved in anti-violence efforts, representatives from local churches, civic organizations, athletics, and service providers. Read more>>

Friday, September 08, 2006

UIS will kick off the progressive celebration of the citywide exhibit Bearing Witness: The Art of Preston Jackson. The program begins at 4 p.m., Saturday, September 9, on the UIS Quad, near the Colonnade. Jackson will attend and will speak briefly.

Following the program, an exhibit of Jackson's bronze figurative works will open in the UIS Visual Arts Gallery. UIS is one of four major art venues in Springfield taking part in this exhibit. Read more>>

Renowned poet/storyteller Robert Bly will be featured in two presentations at UIS' Brookens Library in October. "Poems and Ideas: An Evening with Robert Bly" is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, October 3, in Brookens Auditorium. The following day he will speak on "What Responsibility Do We Have for the Iraq War" at 11 a.m., also in Brookens Auditorium.

Bly's nonfiction works include the international bestseller Iron John: A Book about Men; his more than 30 volumes of poetry include Eating the Honey of Words: New and Selected Poems.Read more>>

Christopher Mooney, professor of Political Studies at UIS, was recently recognized for his work as founding editor of the State Politics & Policy Quarterly with a reception in his honor. The reception was held during the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Philadelphia.

SPPQ is a leading national journal of comparative state politics and is the official journal of APSA's State Politics and Policy organized section. Read more>>

The first in this fall's Taste of UIS Lunchtime Lecture Series will be "The American Way: Government-Industry Collaboration in the War on Terror," a presentation by alumnus Mark Cheviron, who is an expert in security and counterterrorism.

The program is set for Wednesday, September 20, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Maldaner's Upstairs, 222 South Sixth St., Springfield. Reservations are required.

Cheviron is currently responsible for security functions at all of ADM's 1,100 locations in 70 countries and a member of the Executive Working Group of the U.S. Department of State Overseas Security Advisory Council. Read more>>

Thursday, September 07, 2006

UIS will observe the fifth anniversary of the events of 911 with a series of free public programs. All of the events will take place Monday, September 11, on campus.

The campus chapter of College Republicans will sponsor a memorial display of small U.S. flags in the Quad area and a screening of the film "United 93." International Studies will sponsor a brown bag presentation titled "Five Years After: The Attacks of 9/11 and Their Consequences." Read more>>

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Enrollment at UIS this fall is the largest ever in the institution's 36-year history. A record number of freshmen and more international and online students helped boost total enrollment to 4,761 students, surpassing the previous record of 4,702 students set in fall 1995.

Director of Admissions Lori Giordano called it a "truly campuswide effort." Read more>>

Friday, September 01, 2006

The Division of Student Affairs at UIS is sponsoring a Foreign and Independent Film Series on Friday nights this fall. All films are shown at 7 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium. Admission is free and the public is welcome to attend. See the line-up of films>>